Inside the Police Reports: Painting for Love and Middle-of-the-Day Robberies

Each week, Lilburn Patch takes a deeper look into recent crime reports from the Gwinnett and Lilburn police departments.

Painting With True Angst: A young man called Gwinnett PD earlier this month to complain about vandalism that happened to his car late that evening. The victim told police that, while his yellow Nissan Xterra was parked in a residential driveway on Abri Place near Arcado Road, someone poured white paint all over it and slashed one of his tires. He also said the same incident occurred just weeks before, and he believed that the homeowner's husband was responsible. The homeowner, 23, told police that she is currently in the middle of divorcing her husband, a 24-year-old Stone Mountain resident. According to both the car owner and the homeowner, the husband believes that the man is the reason for the divorce.

Police weren't able to make contact with the husband at the scene. The owner of the car doesn't have any proof that the husband did the damage, so police currently aren't charging him with anything, but he is listed as a suspect on the report.

You Couldn't Call the Police From a Next-Door Neighbor?: Police were dispatched to a residential robbery at an apartment complex on the 4300 block of Paxton Lane near Killian Hill Road and Highway 78. Nobody answered the door when police arrived at the scene, but after waiting a few minutes, a 19-year-old woman, her nephew and her stepfather approached the officer on foot from the street. The woman explained that she had walked herself and her nephew to her stepfather's workplace nearby to call police after someone came into the home and stole her phone and laptop.

She told police that two men, one of whom she couldn't see, approached her apartment door around 4 p.m. The one that was visible, a black man who looked to be in his late teens or early 20s, asked to speak to her brother. She told him he was at his child's mother's house and that she would give them the mother's phone number. As she grabbed her phone nearby, the man struck her on the back of the head, partially knocking her out, and he took her cell phone and laptop, according to the police report. They ran from the home into their red sport utility car and drove off. 

Officers called the brother, who refused to meet with officers, and he said had no idea who those men were or why they were looking for him. Officers were able to watch surveillance tape of the apartment complex's entrance and saw two cars matching the description of the vehicle, but there's nothing more at this time.

Around the time the incident occurred, Gwinnett police had surveyed the area for a routine check but didn't notice anything suspicious. The officer also noted that he or she drove by the family walking on the sidewalk near the apartment complex around the time they reported the incident, but they appeared casual and didn't attempt to gain the police officer's attention.